Record rains paralyse China's southern city Changsha

Heavy rains overloaded the southern Chinese city of Changsha on Monday, turning roadways into rivers and submerging pedestrian underpasses and subway tunnels.

Emergency teams ferried residents to and from their homes on rubber boats and went out to rescue drivers trapped on flooded roadways, state CCTV reported.

From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., the state Weather condition China service stated it measured 65.1 millimetres of rains in the capital of Hunan province, a new hourly record for the city in June.

This rain is so heavy, at this rate, my compound will become an island, one social media user composed on their Weibo account.

Waters surging through an underground pass to a subway train station rose and overflowed onto the streets, videos published online showed. By the afternoon, the city had actually shut down two train lines and closed numerous tourist areas.

There were no instant reports of casualties in the city. But dozens of others have died in floods and landslides in recent days in southern provinces including Guangdong.

The level of the rains in June have actually captured lots of by surprise. Generally, China enters its peak rainy season in late July.

Extreme weather condition has made storms more extreme and unforeseeable, exposing greatly built-up and extremely occupied megacities with bad drain to unexpected floods and waterlogging. In backwoods, mudslides have been a major cause of casualties.

Last week, President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to fight floods in the south, prompting every possible effort to rescue those lost and caught.

(source: Reuters)